The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-09-22

ANo ohO pOCu anu IHoJ llNcu OUb Iu6
belief OF the founder of their order, shat
y they who came forth to labor for the sal
Y walton OF idolaters, receive from ON high
! such consolation, that if there be on earth
e such thing as happiness, it is theirs"
e When at length the sway of the Spaniard
was broken and receded from the
provinces of the southwest, the Catholic
missions still wrought work of love and
7 eniightment among the Indians, and their
t priests were still exploring new fields and
! setting up their pulpits among strange
and remote. tribes. But at length they
felt the influence of coming events. The
, atmosphere of a NV civilization was
) sweeping westward, and before 1t, alike,
cavalier and priest faded and vanished
from the soil. The hardy Saxon claimed
the wilderness as an empire of wealth for
restless energy and practical vigor; the
gay knights-errant and chanting mission
aries were whelmed in the rush of the ad-
vancing tide of immigration and absorbed
in the noisy throng of clear-headed,
strong handed, impatient population,
whose nervous energy and pell-mell haste
had no time for pageants and dreams and
the quiet labors of leisurely priesthood.
And so they are gone. Their old stone
missions are sadly decaying; the moss
grown walls are cracked and lettering; the
suggestive and not unpleasing simplicity
of the Gothic architecture is defaced by
mildew and marred by vandalism, and
many of them lie in ruins all along the
track of the old Spanish settlements.
Their former inmates are scarcely remem-
bered among men, although the annals of
human sacrifice and devotion, the history
of sublimity and heroism in life and deed,
show no grander specimens of unmur-
muring toll, unfathomed love, the voice
less majesty of sanity trust and silent
purity than the forgotten missionaries of
early America. 1t is only now and then,
when stumbling over some half buried
ruin, or gazing on the totteriDg columns
and walls of some deserted Mission, fit
memorials of an unhonored and uncrowned
heroism, that we forget for a brief hour
the strife and restless turmoil of the noisy
world, to do reverence to the sutferlngs
and the labors, the self-denial and the
Jealous faith of a race and time long
:, gone. 1t was On the site of such ruin
that these thoughts first awoke in my
bosom, and these half reproachful medita-
, tions wove their spell about me. 1t was a
drowsy afternoon in August. The almost
Oppressive calm of tropical noon was
!, Just yielding to the dreamy charm of a
summer evening. Beneath me lay the old
Mexican town of Chihuahua, as silent as a
tabled city of Oriental fairy land. The
Three Crosses of its famous cathedral
y glistened in the sunlight with the same
+ dazzling splendor they did when the
! Spanish priests of three centuries ago
4 81 TnIiop m tho n.
: bols of the Gospel of peace. The white
;. streets were radinat with dancing heat;
: the low, red-roofed houses and quaint
E adobe structures, with here and there
4 building marked by the bizarre ornamen-
tation of an American architect, were all
= wrapped in glowing halo of intense sun
O light. Giant oleanders fringed the narrow
streets of the suburbs, dwarfed century
y plants were scattered over the foothills
q beyond, while far. out on the plain the
y. glittering whiteness of the cactus lent a
=, fierce brilliance TO the dazzling brown OF
|. the withered grass. The blue sky above
:, - was hecked with motionless ocean clouds
y driven in from the Pacific by the light
:, western breeze; behind me lowered the
=, solemn heights of Monte del Fruele, its
y summit wreathed in light mist and itE
:, sides clothed in the dark shadows d
~ mountain cedars, while the successive
spurs of the Penalino range overhung thu
! valley of ALBANIA, as it widened out TOWARD
- the north, its sombre depths relieved by thu
= vivid green of the live-oak and the ricf
% coloring of the madrono. Around m,
:, clustered the luxuriant foliage of fertll
10 plateau, in the centre of which were tn
o. . ruins of the ancient Mission of San Ge
- rouimo 1t was evidently once building
y of some size and architectural beauty, ant
y even now shows traces of Old World cul
~ ture and skill Its walls had fallen almos
~ entirely down on one side, the entranc
=: :: WAS blocked up with rubbish and the sup
70 portipg columns of the doorway wer
y. oyerrun with vines which seemed to gen
% erously conceal the ruin they could no
. repair. The whole was originally enclose
y with an outer wall of adobe naterla
: which ran back of the building and en-
~ closed some four or five acres, with
corral for horses and small fed TO
raising maize and vegetables. QR tn
3 hill slope toward the town there WAS for
II merly large enclosure, belonging to tn
; mission and cultivated ASIA vineyard
. San Geronimo was one of the carries
SPANISH missions of Northern Mexico, an
90 was built in the latter partof the sixteent
81 century. It was in fourishing conditio
-, - until i765, when the priests left 1t an
.vs went north to the later settlements
W. Santa Fe and in the valley of the uppt
=. az Colorado. 1t still continued, however,
Va form sort OF hostelry and rendezvol
10 for travelling missionaries, but was final
~ entirely abandoned and has come to i
present ruinous condition. But thong
lba deserted and deoaying, there is an ell
. nv ouence in its Wondering walls, voc
10 grandeur in its silent chambers and blac
~ ened columns:
X Unto The things of earth, which time hath bent
by A ,pirit's feeilug: and where he hath lent
10 His hand nut broke his scythe, there 10 power
NO And magic in the ruined battlement;
ne For which the palace of the preeent hour
Sc Must yield its pomp, and walt I'LL ages are
ty DOVER"
". 1t is a fit type and emblem of the spirit
once enshrined, melancholy relic OF
&C forgotten people. What world OF st
49,, ,r' meaning and unutterable sublimlty
- contained in the simple story of the
III early monks. How much it speaks
:, lives neglected by the busy world, nc
:, eloquently it pleads for the fading mem'
~ ries, the dispised labors, the unknown al
~, unnoticed sacrifices of an answering d.
pr votion to the lowly calls of duty, the stel
Oer monotopy of hermit's heroism! II
III allied to the utmost with the dispassiona
boo .